Psalms 94

Psalms 94:1-11

This psalm was proved when the church of God was oppressed and persecuted; and it is an appeal to God, as the judge of Heaven and

and earth, and an address to him, to appear for his people against his and their enemies. Two things this psalm speaks, 1. Conviction and terror to the perfumery, vers. 1—11. 2. Comfort and peace to the perfected, vers. 12—23, and this, under every discouragement and suffering, should engage us with patience and hope to await the salvation of God.

1. O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth: O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. 2. ‘Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth: tender a reward to the proud. 3. LORD, how long shall the wicked, ‘how long shall the wicked triumph? 4. How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? 5. They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage. 6. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. 7. Yet they say, The LORD shall not see : neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. 8. ‘Understand ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? 9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? 10. He that chastifeth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not be known? 11. The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

There is an Almighty Judge, to whom the oppressed may appeal, and who will vindicate their cause.

1. The psalmist lodges his appeal with God against his adversaries. O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, who hath the power to avenge the oppressed with wrong, and whose business engages him to exert it, shew thyself, or thine forth, appear in behalf of thy suffering people, and continued with the light of truth the works of darkness. Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth, that those who say the Lord hath forsaken the earth, and with confidence of iniquity grow daring to wickedness, may be dismayed, and that God’s own people may be comforted by his appearing : render a reward to the proud; according to their provocations repay them with punishment. Note, Under every present oppression it becomes God’s people patiently to endure, and want the day when he that judgeth righteously shall arise to avenge them speedily.

2. He complains of the wickedness of the enemies of God’s people, and expostulates with God on suffering them so long. [1.] They are wicked in nature and heart. [2.] With their lips they blaspheme God, and utter hard spearless against his providence, his Christ, his truth, his people. [3.] In their lives they are workers of iniquity, thick at nothing to compass their designs, and make it their habitual practice. [4.] They are cruel oppressors, afflicting and persecuting God’s people, whom he hath chosen for his heritage for ever, not fearing the widow and stranger, and, adding cruelty to oppression, they murder the fatherless, who are unable to defend themselves. [5.] They are atheistical, they say, The Lord shall not see; either there is no God, or that he concerns himself not about the affairs of men: neither shall the God of Teach regard it, which title they seem to give to God, as ridiculing their confidence who called him their covetant God. For these abominations he cannot but expostulate. How long, Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph? See. It was grievous to him to behold God’s people so harassed, and his name so dishonorably, and he urges the Lord without delay to appear on their behalf. This is very applicable to the blasphemers, perfecutions, crutches, and atheism, that have distinguished the Romish antichristian church : but their triumphing is but for a moment, the vengeance due to Babylon mystical advances.

3. He addresses these wicked men, and urges them to consider their ways. Understand, ye brutish among the people; for such conduct as is above described, shews more of the tyger of the defert than of humanity: and ye fools, in their own infidel conceits the only knowing men, in God’s account, the most wretchedly ignorant, when will ye be wise? and learn true wisdom and the fear of God? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? It argues the foolishness of folly to suppose, that he who formed these organs of our bodies with such exquisite art, should himself be defective in those faculties he so wonderfully believes. He that chastifeth the heathen, as he did the old world, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan, shall not be correct? hath he not the same abhorrence of the like sins, and the same power to punish them? undoubtedly; he that teacheth man knowledge, that gave man his natural reason and understanding, and is the fountain of all human wisdom, shall not be known? yea, verily; his understanding is infinite, extending to all persons and things, and from him nothing is hid, nothing is decent, even our hearts are naked and open before him. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity; either that their object is vain, the sinful pleasures and pursuits of a

VOL. I.

perishing world, or the issue of them is vanity, he disappointing the devices of men and bringing them to nought. Seeing them we have to do with faith in all-being God, how careful should we be to keep our hearts with all diligence, and watch over the first motions within of evil concupiscence?

12. ‘Bleffed is the man whom thou chastifeth, O LORD, and ’teacheth him out of thy law? 13. That thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit he digged for the wicked. 14. For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. 15. But judgment shall return unto righteousness; and all the upright in heart shall follow it. 16. Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 17. ‘Unless the LORD had done my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. 18. When I said, ‘My foot flippeth: thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. 19. ‘In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul. 20. ‘Shall the throne of iniquity have followship with thee, ‘which frameth misfired by a law? 21. ‘They gather them, selves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. 22. But the LORD is my defence: and my God is the rock of my refuge. 23. And ‘he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yet, the LORD our God shall cut them off.

Psalms 94:12-23

Verily there is a reward for the righteous, they shall be comforted in, and be delivered from, all their troubles.

1. God will bless them in all their suffering; though their enemies for a time are permitted to prevail, they are but the rod in God’s hand, and lifted up with the most gracious design for their good. Blessed is the man whom thou chastifest; every child of God may expect his corrections, they are absolutely necessary, and the proof of his adoption; and so far from complaining of them as hard, should he regard them as the kindest influence of paternal tenderness; and teacheth him out of thy law, afflictions being designed for our instruction and improvement; God by his word and spirit teaching his children how to profit under his correcting hand, and we are then blessed indeed, when by our trials we gain a fairer evidence of our sonship, and grow more conformed to the image of our crucified Master: that thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity, or evil; for this works peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby; the Lord also sweetly supports the souls of his saints under their troubles, till the end for which they were sent is answered, and then he delivers them safely out of them; and he will shortly bring them to his eternal soft, where their enemies shall for ever cease from troubling, until the pit he digged for the wicked, whose end is destruction, eternal torment their portion, and the pit of hell their accursed abode. For the Lord will not cast off his people; how long, or how greatly soever he may suffer them to be afflicted, he is bound to them in a covenant of everlasting love in Jesus Christ, and they shall never perish; under will he forsake his inheritance, his title to them he will never quit, even in the lowest estate to which his church and every individual member of it may be reduced, they are precious in his fight, and he hath promised, ‘will never leave our forsake thee; so that we may confidently trust him, and wait in hope. But judgment shall return unto righteousness; the seeming disorders of providence shall be rectified, when in the last days all the antichristian perfecutors of God’s people shall have their plagues poured out upon them; and in the day of final retribution, God will appear righteous in all his judgments; and all the upright in heart shall follow it; either the judgment of God with their praises, acknowledging the glory of his justice, Rev. xvi. 6, 7, xix. 12, or righteousness, approving themselves before him in all holy conversation and godliness; or, as the words may be rendered, all the upright in heart shall be after him, as the flock of his pasture attending their shepherd, and following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth with their unceasing praises.

2. He will help and defend them, and make them at last more than conquerors. Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? The psalmist speaks in the person of God’s suffering church and people, describing the character of their enemies, evil-doers and workers of iniquity, who make no difficulty of committing all manner of abominations, and therefore the more to be feared; whilst the question put intimate the weakness of the faithful to struggle with their mightier foes, unless God interpose; for indeed, when we consider our enemies spiritual and temporal, we shall find ourselves a very unequal match for them, and may well say, Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost, or must quickly have, dwelt in silence, as was the case of the apostles,

8 H 2 Cor.

2 Cor. i. 10. and in innumerable instances every christian hath experienced it to be his own case, when almost reduced to despair, he feared he should fall under his temptations, but the Lord was his helper. When I said, My feet fespoth, I am sinking, help, Lord, I perish: thy mercy, O Lord, hold me up mercy that never fails, and then appears most precious when extended to us in the time of need: let no afflicted child of God therefore utterly despond, but look to him who glorifies his grace in delivering the souls appointed unto death. In the multitude of my thoughts within me, perplexed and distressed, as God’s dearest people sometimes are, with apprehensions of his purity and majesty which confounds them; with such a sense of their own guilt as terrifies them, with unbelieving fears that their sins are too great to be forgiven, their corruptions too strong to be subdued, that they cannot be children of God, and their hope is delusion, that they shall never be able to endure unto the end: these, and the like discouraging thoughts, tumultuous rise within the soul, and breed anxiety and trouble; but thy comforts delight my soul; comforts, arising from a sense of the unchangeable love, and transcendently rich and sovereign grace of God, derived from Jesus, and by his spirit shed abroad in the heart; comforts, not like those poor pleasures the world can minister to death the melancholy, which often are ineffectual to dispel the gloom, and when successful are but like the momentary relief procured by an opium, whilst the disease remains rooted as ever; but these comforts delight the soul, are solid, substantial, abiding, enjoyed independent of all the world can give or take away, and the foreradics of eternal confolation. Shall the thorns of iniquity have fellowship unto this? No, that God abhors, and most abhors those, who, in his name, pretend authority for committing iniquity; as the man of sin, the head of the Romish church, who claims all power in heaven and earth, and pretends a right to be flown indulgences and pardons for sin at his pleasure, which frames misforthy by a law, then most oppresses when God with the appearance of justice; and such are the horrid decrees of the church of Rome; or against law, the character given of Anti-christ, a Thief xi. 8. They gather themselves together against the souls of the righteous, to destroy them, or usury dominion over their confidences, and condemn the innocent blood, murdering the just for refusing to submit to their abominations, Rev. xvi. 6. xviii. 24. But the Lord is my defence from every assault, and my God is the rock of my refuge, where the soul of the faithful is safe, and founded on Christ the gates of hell cannot prevail against him, who will protect his people, and punish their cruel enemies. He shall bring upon them their own iniquities, the just punishment of them, and for the blood they have shed give them blood to drink, Rev. xvi. 6. and shall cut them off to their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off; and then we unto their souls, they must perish without hope; their wickedness will follow them to their graves, witness against them in judgment, and thrush them down into the belly of hell. Such is the end of the ungodly.